Dance with Me?
by Tiniwiel
Summary: Rose asks Jack and his ability to "dance". The Doctor isn't amused by their conversation. Set about a month after "The Doctor Dances" NinexRose with the beginnings of NinexRosexJack if you squint.


This is the last of the fic requests from my personal Livejournal. My good friend Kiley asked for a Jack/Anybody Doctor Who fic, but I have yet to see Torchwood (and at the time had only watched the first season of Doctor Who) I decided to do a Jack/Doctor/Rose fic.

And I kind of had a hard time with this one. I really wanted to do each character justice and I was having trouble with Jack. Why, I'm not sure. But I hope you like it! And my definition of a drabble is a lot different than the actual definition, so this was several pages in Word.

Also, I didn't have a beta, so please excuse any spelling and grammar mistakes.  
Oh, and it's been about four years since I've read "Brave New World" and I can't remember the exact details but I'm pretty sure they were cloning people in factories, weren't they?

Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize.

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Despite the many adventures they've embarked on since she joined the Doctor, Rose often found herself with nothing to do. She couldn't help the Doctor with the repairs, she had ever been one for reading and she had learned the hard way what would happen if she wandered too deep within the Tardis.

So she watched the Doctor as he methodically removed one wire and connected it with another. She found it soothing, it seemed to help her focus her thoughts almost as if he transferred some of his calm to her.

When Jack arrived he bounded into the repairs with such energy and enthusiasm that now it felt more like entertainment than tranquility. He would ramble from one story to the next, always careful to engage both Rose and the Doctor without distracting the Time Lord or himself from their work.

It took two weeks for the Doctor to warm up to Jack and Rose thought it had something to do with the fact that he helped save Rose from the tyrannical leader of the planet Enferade who wanted to sacrifice her to their sun god.

Since then Rose knew without a doubt she could trust Jack with her life, though some days she didn't know what to think of him. It reminded her of her first days with the Doctor: she instinctively trusted him, yet she didn't even know him.

As the Doctor cursed in his native tongue, the only time the Tardis wouldn't translate, she mused that she still had a lot to learn about the leather-clad alien. He stood, sucking at the cut between his thumb and forefinger, followed closely by Jack, still going on about a con he made on Serenity.

"Jack," she said suddenly, interrupting his tale. "Can I ask you a personal question?" Jack smirked and leaned against the console with that naughty gleam in his eye.

"Of course you can. In fact, I insist." She grinned as the Doctor rolled his eyes behind Jack's back.

"Well, we've joked about it a lot but I've been wondering…" She paused, a bit unsure and embarrassed. "But how-I mean why…how did you know you were so, erm flexible about, well..." she paused and bit her lip. "Dancing?"

The Doctor grinned and folded his arms, apparently very interested at how this conversation would unfold. Jack stared at her as though she had grown two extra heads.

"You'll have to run that one by me again, sweetheart." He said with a hint of laughter in his voice.

"She wants to know why you fancy everything with a pulse." The Doctor answered before Rose could open her mouth. "She can't wrap her 21st century brain around it. Humans," he muttered, apparently still annoyed by the cut on his hand. Rose rolled her eyes.

Jack grinned and threw himself next to her into the jump seat. Well, more like on top of her, the seat was so small. "Well my dear, when I'm from the restrictions on sexuality as you know them are non-existent." He paused and tilted his head at her in curiosity. "Have you read "Brave New World" by any chance?"

"Lovely book, that," the Doctor chimed in as Rose shook her head. "Load of rubbish, but very inventive. I mean really, children created in a factory? Couldn't be further from the truth."

"One thing at a time, please Doctor." Rose said before returning her focus on Jack.

"Never mind then," the Time Agent said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Basically it doesn't matter who or what you are. If you have an attraction to someone you should act on it."

Rose didn't miss the pointed flick of his brown eyes between Rose and the Doctor or the hinting tone in his voice. For some reason Jack had made it his personal mission to get the two of them to just admit their feelings for one another almost since day one.

"What about love?" Rose asked, ignoring his actions She had learnd that she and the Doctor had to take their time with their relationship, even though she didn't want to tiptoe around the subject for much longer. Jack had created a new element to their relationship and Rose wasn't even sure what it was.

"It's not important," Jack answered with a roll of his shoulders. Something in his voice made Rose think he felt otherwise. "If you happen to find it, great. But it's not like in your time when everyone was searching for their soul mate."

Rose shook her head. "I still don't get it. I mean, causal dating, yeah? That I get, but anyone? Anything? I just…"

Jack interrupted. "Let me give you an example. Even though I wouldn't," he said, looking at the Doctor with a look in his eye that Rose didn't understand. "If the mood stuck me I could press you against a wall and kiss you so hard you wouldn't be able to see straight." His voice took on that low timbre and Rose shivered. Even though she had known him for over a month, gotten used to his flirting and teasing, he could still render her useless with a few words, just like he did the night they first met.

A sound broke their locked stare and Rose thought it was a growl but when she looked at the Doctor his back was turned. Jack leaned away and continued lightly. "And then the next day corner the Doctor in the kitchen and snog him into next week."

Rose gaped a bit at this but the Doctor didn't seem to react. "And it doesn't it bother you?" She asked finally. "I mean, the fact that he's a bloke. Well, an alien bloke."

Jack grinned and shook his head. "Nope. Does it bother you?"

"Of course not!"

"No, I mean does it bother you that I want to kiss him?"

_Only if he lets you,_ Rose thought. Especially since all she could only get a lot of hand holding, several genuine smiles and a few hugs. Although the thought of Jack pressing the Doctor against the counter with a good snog made her cheeks flush.

"I don't know," she answered finally. Before Jack could say anything the Doctor shoved himself away from the console and stormed out of the room without a word. Jack stood, intent on following him, but Rose caught his hand. "I'll talk to him," she said as she stood up. Even though the Doctor trusted Jack, she knew she could get him to talk more than the Time Agent could.

Jack looked so worried and scared that Rose kissed him on the cheek in reassurance. "Don't worry," she said lightly. "He's just being himself." And with that she walked away, her small smile melting into a frown.

She found him glowering into an open panel, arms crossed and practically melting the wires with his glare. She approached him slowly like one would with a wild animal, unsure how he would lash out.

"What do you want?" He snapped before she could open her mouth. She rolled her eyes at his back. _For you to stop acting like a big baby_, she thought. He turned, his eyebrows raised in that "oh really?" look he often responded with when he gave her cheek.

"Sorry," she said, a bit sheepish. She tried to smile, hoped that this little exchange had broken the ice but he merely turned back to the jumble of wires. "What's this then?"

"It's the controls for the cooling system. Been getting a bit warm in the control room," he added dryly.

"Not that, you git." She tried to keep her voice light. "I mean what's with the attitude? Why did you storm away like that?"

He didn't say anything for a moment. "Because-" he stopped himself and almost slammed the metal panel on the wall, securing it with his screwdriver.

"Doctor, please." Rose said softly, placing a hand on his arm. He looked at it for a moment, a faraway look in his eyes. She thought she saw tears but she blinked and they were gone. He covered her hand with his cool one and stared intently at her for a long moment. He looked ready to speak when something behind her caught his attention. He scowled and strode away without a word. Rose turned to see Jack standing in the corridor looking even more hurt and confused.

Rose shook her head sympathetically at Jack before following the Doctor's quick pace. Now he really was acting like a spoiled child and she had had enough. Luckily his room wasn't far, though she only knew it by the distinctive carvings on the door. She had yet to see inside even though the Doctor waltzed into hers like he owned it whenever he felt.

Although, she thought, technically he _did_ own it. Clearing her head she knocked quietly on the wood and tried to turn the knob only to find it locked. She frowned and knocked harder, growing frustrated with each moment.

"It's not fair for us non-telepathic beings, you know," she yelling into the door. "I can't read your thoughts but you can read mine." Silence. "If you bothered to listen in for longer than the occasional snark you would know I probably didn't mean what you think I meant in the control room."

The door flew open with such ferocity that Rose took a step back. Anger and hurt flashed in the Doctor's eyes and she took one more.

"Well it doesn't take a mind reader to know that if you don't care whether or not I kiss Jack Harkness then you don't-" He cut himself off but Rose filled in the rest. _Then you don't care for me_. He tried to slam the door in her face but she ran through before he could and stood in the middle of his dimly lit room with her hands on her hip.

It occurred to her then that fighting about hypothetical kissing was a bit ridiculous, but she realized that this was probably the moment in their relationship she had been waiting for since Jack arrived. Leave it to them to fight about taking the next step. If they even took it.

"For such a superior being you really can be thick sometimes!" She yelled as he shut the door. "If I had to pick between kissing Jack or kissing you, of course I'd pick you!" This surprised the Doctor and his anger faded from his stance. "And I only said I didn't know because you seemed so comfortable with his lifestyle that I didn't want to seem a prude or something."

The Doctor looked her over. "You'd pick me?" He asked in an awed voice. Rose shook her head and grinned, her tongue catching between her teeth.

"Yes, you big idiot. I've wanted to since, well for a long time and I had hoped something would happen on Woman Wept, but…" she trailed off and the Doctor grimaced. She studied him for a moment as he shifted nervously and the realization dawned that maybe he _had_ wanted to then, but lost his nerve.

She smiled and took a step forward only to have him side step her and sink heavily into the rarely used mattress on his bed. He held his head in his hands and she sat beside him, their shoulders touching.

"Are you sure?" He asked suddenly, lifting his head. "There are so many reasons why we shouldn't-"

"And who's been making them?" Rose asked softly. She didn't want to sound accusing, she wasn't angry at him, just tired of his excuses. "I don't care that you're 900 years my senior and an alien. I quite like older blokes and humans haven't worked for me so far."

His lips quirked into a brief smile and she giggled. He looked her straight on, capturing her in those gorgeous blue eyes. "You could die." He stated lowly, turning the air somber with the low timbre of his voice. "I could die. There are so many ways we could get separated. One of us could up alone and broken hearted. I don't want that for you." He took her hand and pressed it gently against his lips. "You deserve more."

"You've already given me more," she whispered, entranced by his movements. "And if there's anyone who deserves happiness, even for a bit, it's you." They leaned closer together and Rose's skin crackled with anticipation, tiny explosions on her hand where his fingertips brushed her.

"But what about-" Rose cut off his question with her lips, unable to wait any longer. He tasted like cream and cloves, leather and tea and things she couldn't name. She committed it all to memory because she knew in the back of her mind that he was right. One day, far in her future she hoped, they wouldn't be together and she would only have memories.

They explored each other with light touches and sighs before a pinging noise rang out and the Doctor pulled away.

"What's that?" Rose asked breathlessly, her fingers still clenched to his jacket.

"Something's wrong in the console. Jack probably thought he could fix it up himself and ended up making things worse." He stood to leave but she grabbed her hand and pulled him down beside her again.

"Apologize to him, please? He didn't mean any harm. He respects you." His face hardened for a brief moment before relaxing into that slightly manic grin. He kissed her chastely on the lips before walking out.

Jack stood frowning in front of the flashing display screen. "What have you done to my ship?" The Doctor asked lightly as he entered the main room. Jack jumped away slightly with the look of a child caught with his hand in the sweets jar.

In his brief time here Jack learned never to trust the Time Lord's smile. He could be grinning at you one minute and kill you the next.

"I didn't touch anything, I swear. I was just sitting on the jump seat and something started going off. I promise." His fear must have shown because a weary looked over the Doctor's face before he let his hands fall to his side.

"Jack, I'm not angry with you. I have…I'm very protective of Rose and I'm sorry."

"So…you're not going to kick me out?" Jack asked, still slightly on guard despite the apology.

"Why would I do a thing like that? If I wanted to punish you I'd do something far worse." Jack smirked and that cheeky gleam came to his eyes but the Doctor pointed at him warningly. "Don't even." He joined Jack at the screen, but the young man wanted to clear up one last thing.

"I just want you to know I may flirt with Rose but it's harmless. I got your message to keep my hands off loud and clear the moment I stepped on this ship." Jack didn't think he would forget the warning look in the Doctor's eyes while he dipped Rose in their impromptu dance during Jack's first minutes on board.

"Jack," the Doctor said as he grabbed him by the shoulders before kissing him soundly on the forehead. "My dear, sweet human. Did you ever think that Rose wasn't the only one on this ship you could work your charms on?"

The Doctor grinned at the Time Agent's stunned face and turned back to the screen with an enthusiastic "Fantastic" before Jack could even move.

Things just got a lot more interesting.

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